The present invention relates generally to mounting apparatus, and, more particularly, to a mounting assembly for mounting a portable transceiver thereupon.
Cellular communication systems permit a user to communicate telephonically at virtually any location. As continual improvements in the field of cellular communications have permitted ever greater numbers of users to utilize the cellular communication systems to communicate therethrough, the sale and use of cellular phones has increased dramatically in recent years.
A cellular communication system is created by positioning receiving stations at spaced-apart locations throughout a geographical area. Each receiving station receives radio frequency signals generated by a cellular phone when the phone is located in the vicinity of the receiving station, and the receiving stations are positioned throughout the geographical area such that the cellular phone positioned at any location in the geographical area is within the reception range of at least one of the receiving stations. The geographical area is divided into portions, and the number of portions into which the geographical area is divided is determined by the number of receiving stations positioned throughout the geographical area such that one receiving station is positioned in each portion of the geographical area. Each portion is defined to be a cell, and the signal transmitted by a cellular phone when positioned in a particular one of the cells is received by the receiving station which defines the cell.
A user operating a cellular phone when positioned in a particular cell communicates telephonically by transmitting a radio frequency signal to the receiving station. The receiving station is connected to a conventional telephone system to permit signals transmitted to the receiving station to be transmitted therealong. Numerous users of numerous cellular phones may simultaneously transmit signals to the same receiving station by transmitting signals at various different frequencies, or through the implementation of digital multiplexing techniques.
While a user may communicate telephonically through a cellular communication system when situated at any fixed location in the geographical area encompassed by the cellular communication system, cellular communication systems are perhaps most frequently utilized by operators traveling in an automobile or other vehicle. When carried in a vehicle, a cellular phone is referred to as a mobile phone, and the phone must be constructed to permit usage thereof as the vehicle is travelling towards or away from a receiving station. As the vehicle in which the mobile phone is positioned travels through successive cells, the signals transmitted by the mobile phone are received by successive receiving stations to permit continuity of telephonic communication.
Earlier designs of mobile phones were of significant dimensions and weights. The weights and dimensions of the phone were great enough to limit significantly the portability of the phone. In fact, in many instances, the phones were of such dimensions that substantial portions of the phones (e.g., transmit/receive circuitry and amplification circuitry) were placed in a trunk, or other storage area, of the vehicle, and, once installed thereat, were only removed with great infrequency, and with significant difficulty.
Increased miniaturization of the various components of the mobile phone permit the phone to be housed in ever-smaller packages. As a result, in many instances, the aforementioned phone component portions previously installed and affixed in a trunk, or other storage area, of a vehicle, may be conveniently carried in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. For instance, many mobile phone designs permit transmit/receive and amplification circuitry to be housed within a compact housing which is of dimensions to permit positioning thereof directly beneath a seat in the passenger compartment, or in a glove box compartment. When positioned thereat, the transceiver housing is readily accessible by a user, thereby greatly increasing the portability of the phone. In fact, several cellular phone designs, referred to as transportable phones, may alternately be carried within an automobile to function as a mobile phone, or directly by the user to function as a portable phone.
Mounting apparatus is available to affix component portions of the mobile phone (to be referred to hereinafter generically as a transceiver) at a mounting location of the vehicle, or at any other mounting location. The mounting apparatus affixes the transceiver in position to support the housing thereby. Additionally, several existing mounting apparatus further provide means to absorb vibrational forces generated during operation of the automobile. Such forces, if transmitted to the various circuitry of the transceiver, can cause damage thereto.
However, existing mounting apparatus was developed for use in conjunction with transceivers of the aforementioned greater dimensions and weights. Such existing mounting apparatus was not designed to support transceivers of dimensions suitable for placement in small areas, such as, for example, upon a floorboard beneath a seat in the passenger compartment of an automobile. Additionally, such existing mounting apparatus, designed to support the transceivers of the greater dimensions and weights, were not developed with the intent to permit quick or simple removal of the transceiver from the mounting apparatus.
In short, existing mounting apparatus does not advantageously facilitate or enhance the portability of the transceiver which is otherwise increasingly permitted due to the ever-decreasing dimensional requirements of the transceiver.
Increasingly, many users of cellular phones own or make use of more than one vehicle, and desire to carry a single mobile phone in the vehicle which the user wishes to operate. The transceiver should, therefore, be of a design to permit convenient positioning thereof in any one of the vehicles. To facilitate such interchangeability, the mounting apparatus to which the transceiver is mounted must permit the transceiver to be quickly and easily dismounted therefrom, and, thereafter, to be mounted quickly and easily to subsequent mounting apparatus.
What is needed, therefore, is mounting apparatus which permits quick mounting and/or dismounting of a transceiver therefrom to increase the portability of the transceiver.